Stem cell hope for knee ops

Research could help sports stars dogged by cartilage injuries CUTTING-EDGE stem cell technology being explored in Wales could revolutionise knee surgery, ending the injury misery for the nation's sporting elite.

Research could help sports stars dogged by cartilage injuries CUTTING-EDGE stem cell technology being explored in Wales could revolutionise knee surgery, ending the injury misery for the nation's sporting elite.

Work being carried out at Cardiff University aims to determine whether implanted stem cells can repair damaged cartilage.

Although still in the early research stages, if it proves successful the technology could have major implications for the treatment of cartilage injuries and could even reduce the need for complex knee replacement operations.

It is also hoped that the development of effective stem cell technology could reduce the incidence and pain of osteoarthritis in later life.

The research is part of the first wave of work being carried out around the world into the application of stem cells which, many scientists believe, is the future of modern medicine.

Backed by a &#xA3;90,000 Arthritis Research Fund grant, it follows on from previous re-search in Wales which identified the presence of stem cells, or similar progenitor cells, on the surface of cartilage.

Stem cells have the ability to transform themselves into any other cell in the human body and progenitor cells should, theoretically, be able to give rise to other cells of that tissue type.

The hope is if these cells can be implanted into damaged cartilage, new high-quality cartilage will grow at the injury site, healing the trauma.

Post-doctoral research associate Dr Sam Webster, who is collaborating with Dr Sam Evans at Cardiff University and Dr Anwyn Williams at the University of Wales College of Medicine, said, "If you damage the cartilage in a sporting injury a surgeon will use keyhole technology to cut away the surface of the cartilage and wash it out with saline solution.

"This can sometimes en-courage the cartilage to re-grow but it won't be true cartilage and patients can end up having future joint problems or even need the joint replacing.

"This is the problem with most cartilage repair strategies - they don't last long.

"My aim is to see whether we can implant these stem or progenitor cells into an early, shallow joint injury and see whether new cartilage will grow and whether this cartilage is better than what would normally grow.

"This is still a very preliminary study but it's very exciting."

Swansea City soccer player Matt Murphy is recovering from a cruciate ligament and cartilage injury in his left leg, and five years ago he had surgery to repair cartilage damage in his right knee.

"There will be a lot of play-ers with small tears in their cartilage who don't realise they have damaged themselves until those tears get bigger," the 31-year-old forward said.

"When I did mine it was very painful and there wasn't much I could do with the knee, although I recovered quite quickly - I was playing again four-and-a-half weeks after surgery.

"But every time you injure your cartilage it is cut back, so after three or four times you could be running around with your bones rubbing against each other, which is not good for later life.

"There's a good chance when we retire we are going to be, not crippled, but in pain from successive injuries.

"Cartilage injuries are a professional hazard but if we all thought about what would happen to us then we probably shouldn't be playing football.

"But this kind of technology would be very advantage-ous."

The laboratory-based re-search will initially concentrate on experimenting with bovine cartilage, a by-product of the meat industry, to see whether the special stem or progenitor cells will encourage the growth of new cartilage.

If that stage, which could take about two years, proves successful, studies in animals and eventually humans could take place.